A few posts ago, I have shared you how I saved a lot by withdrawing from Paypal to Unionbank EON to Smart Money. Some asked me on how this procedure goes. Since mobile banking is not a feature that majority of the Filipinos would have on their mobile phones, the setup procedure is quite manual since it always almost needs the aid of the customer service to properly setup these accounts.

One has to exercise a great deal of patience in getting their accounts enabled for mobile banking. In the long run, this setup has saved me several hundreds of pesos.

Activate Smart Mobile Banking for Unionbank EON Account

unionbank eon card

me and my card

The instructions for activating mobile banking for a Unionbank EON account is simple. All you need is a great deal of patience. (Don’t be confused with this set of procedure posted on Unionbank website – this procedure apply only to credit or saving account holders and not to Unionbank EON bank account holders).

  1. Call up Unionbank EON’s customer service. The hotline numbers are listed at the back of the issued Unionbank ATM card.
  2. Customer service forwards the application to the technical support. Wait for the SMS message containing the mobile PIN number within 48 hours.

When I received that SMS message, I did not think it was from Unionbank. I lost that SMS message already but it surely contained the mobile PIN number that I needed. In case my phone got lost or stolen, other people would not have any idea that the SMS message was the one that I needed to activate mobile banking. It took me a while to figure out what that SMS message mean.

After that I followed these instructions on how to activate mobile banking (Unionbank EON is one of the listed direct connect banks).

Get a Smart Money card

I have always used Smart Money card to withdraw cash from ATM machines countless times. Since this card is powered by Mastercard Electronic, it can be used to pay at POS terminals – those ones that are used in restaurants and supermarkets (ask first if a merchant accepts a payment from a Mastercard Electronic card).

  1. Download a Smart Money account number. You can follow any of these activation procedures listed in their FAQ page. I used option number 2 to download my Smart Money account number.
  2. Apply for Smart Money. Go to this online application form available at Smart Money website where one can wait for the card to be mailed to the preferred Smart Wireless Center. You can also apply directly to a Smart Wireless Center. Here a list of Smart Wireless Centers in the Philippines. Be sure to check out this list of qualifications and required documents before going to one.

I chose to go directly to our local Smart Wireless center here in SM Baguio to apply for a card. It took me only a less than an hour to claim my card. Our wireless center happened to have a machine that “prints” all the necessary information on the card such as my name, card number and expiry date on the card. Other places may take up to a month to wait for the card.

Not all Smart Money SIM cards are ready for this feature. Older SIM cards need to be upgraded for the new Smart Money menu. However, the cellphone number stays the same during the upgrade. This may take over a day before the Smart Money card is processed.

How to Transfer Money from Unionbank to Smart Money

Once that the Unionbank EON bank account is linked to my Smart Money card, I can now use it to transfer funds from the Unionbank EON account to the Smart Money card. You just need to do this section if you had successfully setup the two procedures above. This just takes only a few seconds up to a minute to make the fund transfer and only costs P2.50 which is deducted from the airtime (not from the funds).

  1. Go to your SMART MENU select SMART Money.
  2. Select “Reload Money”, press OK.
  3. Once “Reload to” is shown on screen, press OK.
  4. Select from your list of card names to ‘Reload to’ (recipient), then press OK.
  5. Once “Reload from” is shown on screen, press OK.
  6. Select from the list of banks to “Reload from”, then press OK.
  7. From a list of account entries, select account number which will be the source of funds to be loaded to your card,then press OK.
  8. Key in amount (minimum P100) to be reloaded, press OK.
  9. You will receive a confirmation request for the transaction, press OK.
  10. Enter your M-PIN of the mobile banking account you have chosen to reload cash value from, press OK.
  11. You will receive a text confirmation of the amount successfully loaded and your new card balance.

Once that I get the SMS message that the Smart Money card is loaded, I can head over to the nearest BDO ATM to withdraw the full amount. It is also possible to withdraw cash from other non-BDO ATMs but there are corresponding charges that apply. Be sure to check out this list of rates that apply for every transaction that involves with Smart Money.

There’s a lot more about the other applications of Smart Money on its features and benefits page as well as on its FAQ page.

Security

One of the main concerns in doing mobile banking is the security of the transactions that involve mobile transactions. There’s a separate PINs that need to be used – one PIN is used for mobile banking transactions, and the other PIN is used during ATM withdrawals.

I have already lost my cellphone before but those thieves cannot easily access my Smart Money account and my Unionbank EON bank account. They have to successfully key in the right PIN numbers so that they can have access to those accounts.

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